DEBATE: Was Boris Johnson right to merge DFID and the Foreign Office? Was Boris Johnson right to merge the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)? Lauren McEvatt, managing director of Morpeth Consulting and a former government adviser, says YES. The merger of DFID and the FCO is overdue. For too long the UK government has been operating too many strands of [...]
DEBATE: Will the business rates reform package be effective enough to react to the coronavirus crisis? Will the chancellor’s business rates reform package be effective enough to react to the coronavirus crisis? Lauren McEvatt, managing director of Morpeth Consulting and former government adviser, says YES. This business rates package as a whole, when coupled with the decisive action taken by Bank of England on Wednesday morning and considered alongside other support [...]
DEBATE: Could Sir Philip Rutnam’s resignation turn into a major headache for the government? Could Sir Philip Rutnam’s resignation turn into a major headache for the government? Eliot Wilson, head of research at Right Angles and a former House of Commons official, says YES. The resignation of Sir Philip Rutnam is not just a spat between a Whitehall mandarin and his minister. Its impact goes much further than that, [...]
Without visa reform, there can be no UK-Africa partnership January 21, 2020 On Monday, the UK government hosted one of the largest African trade and investment conferences it has ever been involved with. Even so, in comparison to most African trade and investment conferences, it was relatively small — which is in keeping with Britain’s low starting point relative to our global competitors. There is no greater [...]
Time to cull the ministers who sit around the cabinet table January 15, 2020 Walter Bagehot, one of the fathers of our modern constitutional structure, believed that the cabinet was the “efficient secret” of the British state. But what if the institution is now too large to run the country efficiently? I agree with the assessment from chief Number 10 aide Dominic Cummings that the cabinet as it stands [...]
DEBATE: Could tactical voting actually make a difference to the result of this election? December 12, 2019 Could tactical voting actually make a difference to the result of this election? Joe Twyman, co-founder and director of Deltapoll and a presenter of the Polling Politics Podcast, says YES. In first past the post elections, the difference between winning and losing a majority can be small. Really small. Back in 2017, the difference between [...]
DEBATE: Who has the most to gain from tonight’s TV debate? November 19, 2019 Who has the most to gain from tonight’s TV debate: Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn? Lauren McEvatt, managing director at Morpeth Consulting, says BORIS JOHNSON. The spectre of Theresa May’s decision to dodge the debate in 2017 looms in the minds of Conservative strategists. It was a move that proved her poor leadership. Just taking [...]
DEBATE: Can the Tories win on the NHS? November 5, 2019 Can the Tories win on the NHS? Lauren McEvatt, a former Wales Office special adviser and managing director at Morpeth Consulting, says YES. The Tories can win on the NHS, because the Tories can win in Wales. Yesterday’s Welsh Barometer poll has the Conservatives on track to gain nine seats from Labour. The success of the [...]
DEBATE: Has John Bercow done more harm than good as House of Commons speaker? September 11, 2019 Has John Bercow done more harm than good as House of Commons speaker? Lauren McEvatt, managing director at Morpeth Consulting, says YES. John Bercow, with his regular abuses of convention and obvious partisanship, has presided over a gross politicisation of the formerly independent nature of the speaker of the House of Commons. A role which [...]
DEBATE: Are the citizens’ convention on UK democracy proposals a good idea to restore faith in politics? July 31, 2019 Are the citizens’ convention on UK democracy proposals a good idea to restore faith in politics? Eliot Wilson, chief writer at Right Angles and a former House of Commons official, says YES. “Politics is broken.” That’s been the mantra for years now, at least since the expenses scandal of 2009. There has been a terrible [...]
